Chappuis wins another World Cup nordic combined in Lillehammer

Nordic Combined skier Frenchman Jason Lamy Chappuis won his second World Cup competition in as many events today in Lillehammer, Norway. The 23-year-old gained a firm grasp on the overall lead after winning last weekend’s first competition in Kussamo, Finland.

Chappuis was joined on the podium by Norway’s Petter Tande in second and German Eric Frenzel in third.

American Johnny Spillane finished sixth in his first competition of the season. Teammate Billy Demong joined him in the top-20 with a 14th-place finish. Canadian Wesley Savill finished 62nd.

“I was happy with both the jumping and the cross country. I came in without super high expectations and was just going to do whatever I could,” Spillane said. “For sure, I am really satisfied with the results and am looking forward to getting more training and getting faster from here.”

Chappuis, who held the lead after the jumping portion, led during the cross country race for only 1500 meters. In snowy conditions, a group of four, Tande, Frenzel, Tino Edelmann (GER) and Wilhelm Denifl (AUT) were able to catch the leader. In the second 2.5 km lap, Denifl wasn’t able to hold the pace of Edelmann and Tande.

“It was a really hard race and I was lucky to run in a group with Tande, Edelmann and Frenzel. At the end, I made from a tactical point of view the right choices. It was fun battling with Tande for first place,” said Chappuis. “Now, I wear the yellow jersey again and I’d like to keep it as long as possible, maybe the whole season. But the main goal is still an Olympic medal.”

The nail-biting sprint for victory was Chappuis’ prey who outran Tande by only 0.1 seconds. Frenzel got third place, matching his results in season’s previous two World Cup competitions.

Mikko Kokslien (NOR) was the fastest racer on the track. He covered the 10 km in 23:25.33 minutes and moved from 56th place after the jumping to 16th place overall.